Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

 

Are you participating in any book challenges this year?  One that I’ve participated in the past few years and look forward to participating again this year is the #ReadChristie2025 Challenge.  The challenge this year is exploring Agatha Christie’s works through her characters and their careers.  The theme for January was artists and I read the excellent Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie for the first time.

Hercule Poirot is approached by a young woman who is ready to get married, but she wants to know the truth of her parents.  Sixteen years earlier, her artist father was murdered.  Her mother was tried and convicted of the crime, but was she guilty?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This set-up of solving an older crime to help a daughter, seems to be a theme Christie enjoyed.  I just read a similar set up at the end of last year in Elephants Can Remember.

·       Hercule Poirot thinks the five suspects from the house party fit the rhyme, the five little pigs went to the market and he can’t keep that thought from his mind.

·       This story was unique in that Poirot interviews each subject and then asks them to write up their memories in their own words.  The reader gets to read these written accounts.

·       The murder occurs during a very awkward house party where both the wife and the girlfriend are in attendance.  I know artists are eccentric – but it was a bit much!  I felt like the victim deserved to be murdered in this book.

·       I really thought I had this one solved again this time, but I was led astray by a red herring.

·       The house party setting had a limited number of potential murderers (five little pigs).  They were all interesting characters and had reasons they could have committed the crime.

·       I loved the cover of this novel.  It really captured the scene of the murder in the novel.

Overall, Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie is Hercule Poirot and Agatha Christie at their best.  It was an excellent novel and mystery.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com.